My stout placed 3rd in the 18th Annual Bluebonnet Brew-off held here in Irving, TX! I'm pretty pleased with myself. I'm waiting for the scoresheets to come back so I can see how my other 3 beers faired.

I too have been interested in entering some competition, but don't know much about the process. I don't know of anything within a few hours of here either, and that hampers my entry. As for your placing, I think there's no greater or more pleasing event for a brewer than to have his/her brew appreciated by folks who know beer. Congrats.

The shelf life I achieved is a testament to Star-San and purging kegs of oxygen. She was brewed last July, counterpressure filled in mid February, and evaluated in March. Eight months for a beer with an OG of only 1.058 and IBU=45! So if anyone's ever wondered, will my beer last? Yep, just rack without oxygen pickup and sanitize well.

Hey, Freon: I entered with no intention of winning--if you set your sights low, you can only go up, right? Friends & neighbors are critical to my process My approach to selecting contest entries is simple...enter only those beers that they rave over (not just like), but truly have a "religious experience" while drinking. Although they enjoyed the other 3 I entered, the stout is the one they raved over. And my anecdotal evidence bears out my hypotehsis.

I simply wanted to get feedback from the BCJP judges. If I won, great, if I didn't at least I'd get an analysis so I knew what to "fix". It's all part of my master plan to run a micro one day. This recipe has reached "keeper" status after 4 incarnations...it's getting tweaked no more. It went from dry stout to imperial stout back to dry stout, and finally to foreign extra stout.

Counterpressure filling from the keg was an experience. It took me quite a few bottles to get the hang of it. In the meantime, I sprayed myself and the walls with beer. You wouldn't believe how far beer can shoot under 10psi

My local homebrew store was instrumental in the whole process. Here in TX the LHBSs are really involved with the contests. They gathered the entries and entry fees and delivered them to the judging location. Check with your LHBS and see if they help out.

I think most contests are pretty similar in that they want 3 bottles per entry. Each bottle must be plain (no raised lettering) and crimped with a plain cap (no designs). Each bottle is affixed with a label that's rubber-banded on. And you need not be present to win either--I couldn't make it to the festivities. So my LHBS was gracious enough to accept it for me and gave it to me on my next trip to the store.